Dark Turnings
by Knife Hand
Summary: A Scooby gets turned and becomes obsessed with another. Answer to the Dark Thrall Challange from XandersMySweetie Yahoo! Group.


Title: Dark Turnings  
  
Author: Knife Hand  
  
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated  
  
Spoilers: First five series of Buffy and a few from series six. You should be able to pick it up. They're mostly minor.  
  
Rating: R  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy. I would buy it but I am broke.  
  
Summary: A Scooby gets turned and becomes obsessed with another. Answer to the "Dark Thrall" Challenge  
  
AN: There's no Glory in this.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"It's interesting, you know. It is amazing how things can change so rapidly. For over four years, I followed your lead. I went when every fibre in my body told me to stay. I saved your life so many times that I have lost count, and how do you repay me?"  
  
The man paused, his leather pants squeaking slightly and his duster billowing as he violently turned to face the woman chained to the wall. The man was tall, with dark hair and seemingly gentle brown eyes, while the woman chained to the wall was slight of build and had blond hair. The woman's clothing was torn and her face was hidden by her lank and dirty hair.  
  
"ANSWER ME!!!" the man screamed in anger.  
  
"I'm sorry." The woman answered, sobbing. "I'm sorry. All I ever wanted to do was protect you, to protect everyone. I'm sorry, Xander."  
  
"No you're not, Buffy. You never were. All you ever saw me as was a convenience. The poor sap who would do anything for you, well not anymore. Now, you are mine." Xander said cruelly before leaving the bruised and chained Slayer, who never looked up, in the darkened basement with only a metal bucket.  
  
********  
  
~Two Days Prior~  
  
Xander walked despondently through the darkened streets of Sunnydale. His life had recently gone down the drain. The Scooby Gang had effectively voted him out, not letting him go on any patrols or fight in any battles because he might 'Get Hurt', like that wasn't his choice. The only person who had stuck up for him was Tara, but that did not count for much as she was basically an outsider, being the girlfriend of Willow. However Willow and Tara had been having difficulties lately, with Willow suspecting, without grounds in Xander's opinion, that Tara was having an affair.  
  
"Hello Xander." Came a voice from behind him.  
  
"Hey, Harmony. How's things?" Xander replied nonchalantly.  
  
"Not good for you. I am so going to bite you." Harmony replied.  
  
"Go ahead." Xander replied.  
  
"Huh?" Harmony replied.  
  
"It might upset Buffy. Man I want to get at that bitch. So drain me, or better yet, turn me. Then I can harass the bitch." Xander ranted.  
  
"Um. Ok." Harmony said, before sinking her teeth into Xander exposed neck causing him to blackout.  
  
********  
  
~The Next Night~  
  
Slowly Xander's eyes opened and he look around the dingy basement. He felt more alive than he had ever felt before, which was kind of ironic, seeing as he was dead, well, undead. Everything was so much sharper, even his memory. He could differentiate between three hundred and seventy six different shades of black in a single shadow; hear the cockroaches shuffling and the birds that were asleep outside. Xander could feel the air currents flowing around him and smell the faint smell of blood, both his own from when he was turned and from previous victims in this lair. He could remember every second of his life, including all the knowledge from the time he had become Solider Guy on Halloween, and more importantly, every second he had spent watching the Slayer train. At the time he had been watching through the eyes of a love sick puppy, now he scrutinised the memories with the eye of a predator, learning the Slayer's moves and how to counter them. Xander rose from where he had been lying on the floor, absently noticing he still had on his old clothing, and began pacing, impatient for nightfall. Harmony, technically his Sire, entered from another room and gave him her most Ditzy smile. She was accompanied by two minions.  
  
"Oh, goody. My newest minion is awake. How are you doing Xander?" Harmony said overly cheerfully.  
  
"Hungry." Xander responded, reminiscent of the Hyena incident.  
  
Moving with amazing speed for a newly risen vampire, Xander grabbed the nearest minion and, dragging her away from Harmony, sunk his fangs into her neck and drained her, feeling her turn to dust in his arms.  
  
"Ahh. That's so much better." Xander said.  
  
"Hey. Who said you could drink my minions?" Harmony said indignantly.  
  
"I did." Xander replied, stalking towards Harmony.  
  
"Hello, kill him." Harmony ordered the other minion, a large male vampire.  
  
The minion hesitated a second, which was enough for Xander to back hand it across the room. Before Harmony could even move, Xander grabbed her by the neck and ripped her head clean off, causing her to dust instantly.  
  
"Man she was pissing me off." Xander said, then he noticed the minion on the floor. "I work better alone."  
  
The decision made, Xander smashed an old wooden crate to make a stake, idly wondering why so many vampires live with stuff that, in the right hands, could kill them. Xander made his way into the other room, finding another three minions. Xander quickly killed the two male minions, however he kept the female minion alive, so to speak. By the time the sun had set she was also dust, something she had begged for long hours before dusk just to escape what Xander had been doing to her to keep himself occupied. By the time he had finally staked her, she did not even look vaguely human, more like a bloody mass of flesh. Xander walked out into the night, into a new world, he wandered aimlessly through the streets of Sunnydale. After a few hours Xander stumbled onto something that piqued his interest. He noticed Willow and Tara having a heated argument near the Magic Box.  
  
"All I was saying was the Xander should be given the chance to lead his own life. If that means fighting, then let him fight." Tara said in a heated voice, not exactly screaming as it is not really screaming with such a soft voice.  
  
"All he ever does is get hurt. He can't take care of himself and he'll only end up getting killed. It's not worth it and he shouldn't be fighting." Willow responded, her tone and volume could not be called anything other than screaming.  
  
"You're so controlling. In the end, you're no different than my family." Tara shot back, this time loud enough to be called screaming.  
  
Tara turned and walked away, heading back towards her dorm room. Willow was heading back to the Magic Box when she heard her name called.  
  
"Willow. Come here." Xander said from the shadows.  
  
"Xander?!? Is that you?" Willow asked, moving closer to her childhood friend.  
  
"Yah, Wills, it's me." Xander responded.  
  
"Did you hear?" Willow asked, nervously, referring to the events that had just transpired.  
  
"Yah." Xander said, stepping closer to Willow. "Which is why I'll have no regrets doing this."  
  
Xander's hand shot out, grabbing Willow around the throat before she could make a sound. Pulling her into the Alleyway, Xander began to feed on the struggling Witch, feeling the power of magic as her potent blood rushed through his veins.  
  
"Whoa." Xander said when he dumped Willow's corpse.  
  
Xander heard Tara crying as she walked away from the Magic Box, despite the fact that she was a block away. Xander followed Tara at a discrete distance. His demon was curious at the actions of the witch. Why would she go against her lover to stand up for him? The demon searched through his memories for any possible clues to Tara's behaviour. Unlike other vampires, when this demon woke up, there was no separation from the body it inhabited, no period where it saw itself as a sperate entity, and seeing as it had never been a vampire before, it did not know that it was unusual.  
  
It was simply Xander Harris, freed from all the human emotional baggage that had plagued him throughout his life. As he walked, shadowing Tara, Xander thought and realised that, ever since he had first met her, he had been fascinated with Tara, the inner strength hidden by the shy and stuttering exterior. He had felt a connection, a spark, with the brown haired Wiccan that he had never acted on because she was dating his best friend and he had a Girlfriend in Anya. That did not matter now, seeing as he had killed Willow and intended to torture and brutally kill Anya. Anyway, he found that Tara was amazingly intriguing and attractive to him, someone he could easily see spending eternity with, literally.  
  
Xander noticed a vampire approaching Tara and quickened his pace. The vampire grabbed Tara and shoved her into a nearby alleyway. Xander rounded the corner a second later to see the vampire in its game face leaning in towards Tara, who had been so distracted by her fight with Willow that she had been taken by surprise.  
  
'He's touching MY Tara!' Xander's demon silently screamed.  
  
Xander rushed in, tackling the vampire away from Tara, and rolling off the vampire as it hit the ground. Grabbing a shard of wood from a broken crate, Xander staked the vampire as it was rising to its feet. Xander lowered his head and turned away from Tara. His own demonic visage was showing and he did not want her to see it. Tara touches his shoulder and he jerked away.  
  
"L-L-Let me see." She said softly.  
  
Her gentle touch slowly turned Xander to face her, but before she could see his face properly, he broke her grip and ran from the alleyway.  
  
********  
  
Tara ran after Xander, following by sound after a few minutes. She hesitated slightly when she realised that he had gone into one of Sunnydale's multitude of Cemeteries, and by the sound of it, he had stoped. Making her way slowly through the cemetery, she saw Xander looking at one of the mausoleums.  
  
"This is where it all really began." Xander said, startling Tara. "I guess it is true that you become what you hate the most."  
  
Tara had barely heard that last comment.  
  
"What do you mean?" Tara asked gently, her concern for her friend outweighing her nervousness at his strange behaviour.  
  
"Intro into the world of vampires." Xander replied. "This is where Willow almost died and Buffy save both her and me, but failed to save a friend."  
  
"Xander, I'm sorry about Jesse. Willow told me about him, but as long as you remember him." Tara began.  
  
"That's not the problem." Xander broke in. "I remember everything. I can remember seeing Willow before I ever met her. I was two and mom took me for a walk in the stroller, and I have this perfect memory of seeing a two year old girl with amazing red hair in a stroller on the other footpath. I know now it was Willow, but then all I could think was that I wanted to get to know her. Ironic really."  
  
Xander finally turned and faced Tara, his Game Face showing.  
  
"Oh Goddess, you are a Vampire." She reflectively said, then paused. "Why did you save me then?"  
  
"Because you cared." Xander said. "I'm going to be honest with you. After you left Willow, I killed her. I wanted you to hear that from me first. I also want you to know that I won't hurt you."  
  
"W-W-Why?!?" Tara said forcefully.  
  
"She didn't deserve you. Plus she was going to do a spell on you. She mentioned 'Lethe's Bramble' as she died." Xander responded.  
  
"I don't recognise that." Tara countered.  
  
"No reason you should. I now have a photographic memory and I saw it once in a dark magic book while we were researching. It's used for augmenting spells of forgetting and mind control. She was going to rape your mind, and no one does that to my Tara." Xander said.  
  
"Your Tara?" Tara questioned.  
  
"Yes. I'm putting you under my protection. Anyone who harms you answers to me. The others will die, eventually, but you are safe." Xander said.  
  
"Why would I want that?" Tara asked, both disturbed and flattered.  
  
"They never really saw you. I know I didn't until this happened. You were just Willow's girlfriend. Looking back, I see that you are right. They are just as bad as your family, only they hide it better. Buffy and Willow, in their own ways, have been controlling me since I met them." Xander explained. "That's the reason for my actions here. They've been in the darkness so long that they have become it."  
  
"Why me? Why should I live? I'm nobody." Tara demanded.  
  
"Oh contraire. You are the flower among the thorns. You are smart, funny and beautiful. You are strong, strong of will. You have suffered what others could not endure and drawn strength from it. You are gentle and considerate despite your upbringing and that is rare and special. You are the sole beacon of light in the darkness."  
  
"And you are the darkness, Xander." Tara replied.  
  
"No. I'm still me, I just see things more clearly now. They hurt me more than any demon ever could." Xander replied.  
  
Suddenly Xander leaned in and brutally kissed Tara, however there was unbounded passion in the kiss, something Tara had never known. The kiss was suddenly broken and Xander disappeared into the night.  
  
"Get inside Tara." He called as he vanished.  
  
Tara gently touched her bruised lips. That single kiss had held more desire and passion than all the love making with Willow ever had. Compared to the raw emotion in Xander's kiss, Willow's were almost chaste, as if she were more trying to prove that she was a Lesbian than showing that she loved Tara. After a few seconds of contemplation, Tara hurriedly looked around the cemetery and made her way back to her dorm at a brisk pace.  
  
TBC 


End file.
